The present technology relates to an electrophoretic device including an electrophoretic particle in an insulating liquid. The present technology also relates to a display unit using the electrophoretic device, and an electronic apparatus provided with the display unit.
In recent years, low-power display units (displays) with high image quality have been in increasing demand, as mobile equipment such as mobile phones and portable information terminals has become widespread. In particular, recently, electronic book delivery businesses have begun, and a display having display quality suitable for reading purpose has been desired.
As such a display, displays such as a cholesteric liquid crystal display, an electrophoretic display, an electric-redox-type display, and a twisting ball display have been proposed. For reading purpose, reflection-type displays are advantageous. In the reflection-type displays, bright display is performed using reflection (diffusion) of external light in a manner similar to paper and thus, display quality close to that of paper is achieved.
Among the reflection-type displays, an electrophoretic display utilizing an electrophoretic phenomenon has a high response speed while consuming low power, and thus is expected as a strong candidate. As a display method thereof, mainly the following two methods have been proposed.
A first method is a method in which two kinds of charged particles are dispersed in an insulating liquid, and the charged particles are moved in response to an electric field. These two kinds of charged particles are different from each other in terms of optical reflection property, and are also of opposite polarity. In this method, an image is displayed by changing of distribution of the charged particles in response to an electric field.
A second method is a method in which charged particles are dispersed in an insulating liquid, and a porous layer is disposed (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-22296). In this method, the charged particles are moved through pores of the porous layer in response to an electric field. For example, a polymeric film may be used for the porous layer.